ELIAS READY FOR RACE RETURN BUT MELANDRI RULED OUT
 It
will be a bittersweet day for Team Honda Gresini tomorrow
as the team look forward to seeing Toni Elias return to action
after missing three races with a broken femur but with Marco
Melandri missing after the Italian picked up an unexpected
injury during practice.
Marco suffered an exposed discal hernia between the C5 and
C6 vertebrae when exiting a corner in free practice yesterday
morning. After undergoing intense physiotherapy since then
he was hoping to at least take part in this afternoon's qualifying
session but the pain was too intense and he will now be forced
to wait and hope for a return in the next round at Misano
on September 2. He will undergo further examination on Tuesday
in Italy before the full rehabilitation programme is established.
The bright side for the team has been the performance of
Elias, who fought through his own physical problems to qualify
in 14th place for tomorrow's race.
TONI ELIAS (14th, 1'58"264): "I'm
quite satisfied because even though I'm capable of a much
better result I couldn't ask for much more from my body today.
The pain in my leg is getting worse and I think it will be
a tough race tomorrow. Today we tried a few different things
and I didn't do more than four laps at a time to try not to
force it but there are 22 laps to get through tomorrow. Anyway,
I'm quite satisfied and I have to treat this whole weekend
as a test."
MARCO MELANDRI: "I'm really disappointed
to pull out - in my head I wanted to get back on track but
the pain was just too much. Just the sheer force of the wind
under braking pushes the nerve out of position and that takes
away all the strength and feeling from my arm. They've tried
everything at the Clinica but it hasn't worked. On Tuesday
I'll see a specialist and we'll decide what is the best way
to fix it. Hopefully I can be fit for Misano, which is an
important race for the team because the base is so close to
the track."
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